Selfsufficientish.com

Hi Guys,

I have today received my first batch of soap nuts and eco freindly washing up liquid,

both are great have done 2 loads of washing and i am very impressed.

washing up is cleaner than i ever had in the dishwasher which is going out in the garage to be recycled.

maggie

Maggie....

Offer your dishwasher on your local freecycle group - someone will be very glad to take it off your hands

I thought you meant conkers when I spotted 'soap nuts'. Has anyone tried conkers for this?

Matt.

Matt wrote:I thought you meant conkers when I spotted 'soap nuts'. Has anyone tried conkers for this?

Matt.

Conkers???

I am awaiting some soap nuts in the post to try out.

Yes - conkers... I've seen this mentioned elsewhere - not sure where now. I can't remember the outcome either but will go and see if I've bookmarked it somewhere.

freecycled the dishwasher, went within 20 mins of posting.

soap nuts are great, and i have saved heaps not buying washing powder

don't buy cleaning materials now either, us a soloution of vinegar and water, for cleaning most things, for stubborn things like the toilet pan, add some baking soda to it works great.

regards maggie

Dunno about soap nuts, though have thought about them. I am, however, going to try to grow soapwort.

hmmmm. I used to like soapnuts, until i realised that there's more embedded energy in them than buying a british made eco friendly washing powder (such as ecover).

They're shipped over from india.

If you're one of the lucky ones who gets an actual seed in them, then do plant it and then you've got home-grown soapnuts. Or, there's soapwort.

Sorry to P*** on the bonfire, but embedded energy is as much of a concern as chemicals for me.

I got two seeds in mine - one I sent to a friend in Dorset (woodmaiden - who is going to be on it's not easy being green on Thursday!) to plant and one I planted myself. Nothing from mine... not sure about woody - must check. Do you know anyone that has grown them in the UK Fee?

the.fee.fairy wrote:hmmmm. I used to like soapnuts, until i realised that there's more embedded energy in them than buying a british made eco friendly washing powder (such as ecover).

is ecover made in Britain? I thought it ws Belgium..

I was certain it was britain...must check that!

I've only heard about 1 person growing a soapnut tree, and they lived in the US, so i don't know about Britain. not sure about the climate here.

From the ecover website:

Ecover is an international company active in the production of ecological detergents and cleansing agents. It was founded in 1980 in Belgium. Ecover has been a trendsetter from the very start: as a pioneering company, it marketed a phosphate-free washing powder even before phosphates were branded as a problem.

Since 1999, under the sole ownership of Jørgen Philip-Sørensen CBE, Ecover has developed into the world’s largest producer of ecological detergents and cleansing products. Besides its headquarters in Malle, close to Antwerp in Belgium, Ecover has sites in the United States of America, the United Kingdom and Switzerland, and its products are marketed in more than 20 countries.


It seems that they are manufactured in a number of countries, UK being one. I've e-mailed them to make sure though!

The local organic market here won't stock Ecover products anymore because of some less than favourable policy that they have (sorry, can't be more specific than that). They sell 'Bio-D' products now. Bottle says 'Made in UK'. The washing up liquid is infinitely better than Ecover, and the laundry liquid seems perfectly adequate (in fact I was finding that Ecover laundry liquid was a bit pongy, anyway).

Is it something to do with Group 4?

Muddypause wrote: and the laundry liquid seems perfectly adequate (in fact I was finding that Ecover laundry liquid was a bit pongy, anyway).

thats interesting - cos I always found ecover laundry powder fairly pointless - ok if you dont get dirty much but after catching and turning a sheep over to do its feet - you have clothes with sheep poo on them! - and I have felt its not particularly e-friendly to use a product that does not work...
though to be fair to ecover - i have not tried their powder since they improved the recipe - I notice the boxes say something on them along the lines of 'actually works now'...

perhaps i shall have to try BioD now.